Environment secretary opposed waste plant plans that must be approved by body he oversees
The environment secretary has refused to say whether he abused his position when he tried to stop an incinerator being built in his constituency.
But Steve Barclay apologised for not properly declaring his interest and recusing himself, when questioned about it on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Company faced public backlash over scheme, which campaigners say threatens to increase river pollution
Thames Water is bypassing local democracy to attempt to push through a controversial water recycling project that campaigners say threatens to increase pollution in the river.
Steve Barclay, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, has agreed to an application by the water company to consider its Teddington water recycling scheme under national infrastructure rules. The decision means local authorities will be bypassed, and the secretary of state will make the decision whether to grant a development consent order.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Steve Barclay accepted £3,000 donation from Michael Hintze, a key funder of Global Warming Policy Foundation
The new environment secretary, Steve Barclay, received a donation from a major funder of a climate sceptic thinktank just weeks before taking up his role, the Guardian can reveal.
Barclay accepted £3,000 from Michael Hintze on 20 October, and is being asked by campaigners to reveal whether he has been lobbied on climate issues by those who seek to deny the extent of climate breakdown.
Continue reading...Former environment secretary says government work stresses left her hospitalised for a month nearly five years ago
Thérèse Coffey said she “nearly died” due to the stress of being a government minister.
Speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk, the former environment secretary said she was admitted to hospital after “working [herself] into the ground”.
Continue reading...Latest figures show 1,015,067 ‘episodes of care’ have been postponed since end of last year
More than 1m outpatient appointments and operations have been cancelled since strikes began in December across the NHS in England, figures reveal.
Last week’s four-day stoppage by consultants and junior doctors forced hospitals to reschedule 129,913 more “episodes of care”, taking the total to just over 1m, NHS England said.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak’s government seen as less competent that Boris Johnson’s administration
The UK economy is set to witness the highest inflation rate of the world’s G7 advanced economies this year, according to new forecasts, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also increased its predicted average UK inflation rate for 2023 compared with its previous estimate.
Economists at the globally recognised organisation also reduced their UK growth forecast slightly for next year amid pressure from higher interest rates.
Continue reading...Mother of girl who died after hospital failed to admit her to intensive care says policy would make it easier for patients and families to seek advice from senior doctor
Ministers are considering introducing Martha’s rule in England to make it easier for patients and their families who believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff to get a second medical opinion.
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said a similar measure enforced in Australia had been shown to have saved lives. He said officials had been tasked with looking into such initiatives could “improve patient safety here in the UK”.
Continue reading...Health secretary suggested patients could go directly to diagnostic test or clinician to ease ‘bottleneck’ in NHS system
Patients with cancer symptoms could bypass their GP in the future and go straight for a scan, the health secretary has suggested, in the latest “radical” attempt by the government to cut huge NHS waiting lists.
The suggestion, which comes as the government is expected to reduce the number of NHS cancer waiting time targets, could form part of proposals to “design out bottlenecks” in the NHS system, Steve Barclay said in an interview.
Continue reading...BMA highlights government’s ‘complete disregard’ for the health service and its patients
Consultants in England will strike for two additional days in September if the government continues to refuse pay talks and fails to present the profession with a credible offer, the British Medical Association has said.
The BMA said on Monday that it had written to the health secretary, Steve Barclay, to inform him that on top of strikes by consultants on 24 and 25 August, there would be additional strikes on 19 and 20 September, unless the government agrees to further negotiations.
Continue reading...Plans to cut waiting lists in England were welcomed but critics say they do not address deeper staffing issues
Rishi Sunak has been warned his plan for more private sector partnerships with the NHS in England to cut waiting lists will amount to “reshuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic” without addressing deeper structural issues with staffing.
The recommendations of an elective recovery plan, published on Friday, were broadly welcomed by opposition parties and health experts, but said to be overdue. Critics also said they only addressed a fragment of the much wider capacity and staffing issues across the whole of the country’s health systems.
Continue reading...Health secretary says ‘every available resource’ must be used to help patients access diagnosis and treatment faster
More private and third sector providers should be used by the NHS to help cut post-Covid waiting lists, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, will say after a review of capacity in the health service.
Barclay will draw on the work of his “elective recovery taskforce” – a group convened by ministers to look at how to bring down waiting times.
Continue reading...Advisory committee on business appointments says it has seen ‘no evidence’ that Gray’s decision-making was affected despite ex-PM’s claim
NHS England has just published its 150-page long-term workforce plan. It’s here.
The government is keen to present it as an NHS plan, not a government plan, and at the moment you cannot find it prominently on the No 10 or Department of Health and Social Care websites.
This is our longer-term, strategic approach to workforce planning. In a nutshell we will:
1. Train more staff
Continue reading...Health secretary Steve Barclay not confirming when strategy to increase numbers of doctors and nurses will be published
NHS leaders have raised concerns about the delay to the long-awaited workforce plan, after the health secretary, Steve Barclay, refused to give a deadline for its publication amid rumours it is considered too costly.
The plan, which was expected to be published on Tuesday, appears to have been delayed, according to the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery.
Barclay blamed the pandemic and “various things that have been happening in recent years” for the delay during broadcast interviews over the weekend. He had previously promised that the plan to increase the number of doctors and nurses would be published before the next general election.
Cordery said the plan, which has already been postponed from last year and aims to fix the UK’s crumbling healthcare system by plugging chronic staff shortages, was needed “as quickly as possible”.
NHS in England missed target that patients waiting 18 months for an operation would be treated by April
A key government pledge to reduce the size of the NHS’s record-breaking care backlog has been broken, the health secretary has admitted.
Steve Barclay slipped out the news in a Commons statement on Tuesday about a totally unrelated area of NHS policy – his new plan to improve access to GP care.
Continue reading...Health secretary defends court action as Pat Cullen says government decision could make nurses more determined to vote for further strike action
Maclean tells MPs that the last Labour government required photo ID for voting in Northern Ireland. She claims fears that this would lead to people being disfranchised did not materialise.
Earlier, in response to opposition claims that the policy was all about voter suppression (reducing the chance of non-Tories voting), she said Labour required party members to provide photo ID when they turned up to vote to select a Labour candidate.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Health secretary trying to ‘wear down’ NHS nurses rather than negotiating, RCN general secretary to tell high court
Steve Barclay will be accused of wasting taxpayers’ money by pursuing striking nurses through the courts when the government seeks on Thursday to shorten their industrial action due to start on Sunday evening.
In a witness statement to be heard in the high court, Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary, will say the health and social care secretary is trying to “wear down” nurses through legal action.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Claimants say government can no longer defend treatment disaster in light of inquiry’s damning interim report
More than 500 people taking the government to court over the contaminated blood scandal are urging it to concede the case in light of evidence heard by a public inquiry and an interim report produced by its chair.
The claim, which began in 2017 but was stayed pending the inquiry into what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, alleges the Department of Health – now the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – breached a duty to take reasonable care to prevent personal injury or loss, amounting to misfeasance in public office.
Continue reading...Pat Cullen said health secretary’s attempt to block 48-hour nurses’ strike was ‘cruel’ and ‘unacceptable’
The health secretary’s legal challenge against the Royal College of Nursing’s forthcoming strike is a “blatant threat”, the union’s leader has said.
Steve Barclay’s decision to refer to the courts, revealed on Friday, is the latest twist in the long-running saga over pay between nurses and the government.
Continue reading...Exclusive: RCN union hits back after health secretary attempts to prevent planned May Day strike
Health secretary Steve Barclay has been accused by the Royal College of Nursing of trying to “bully and silence” nurses after the government issued legal papers in an attempt to block a planned May Day strike, describing it as unlawful.
A “pre-claim” letter was issued in Barclay’s name on Friday, demanding the RCN cancel industrial action planned for 30 April to 2 May.
Continue reading...High-risk tactic increases likelihood of combined stoppages by nurses and junior doctors in England
Rishi Sunak appears set on trying to face down unions in a high-risk strategy to tough out a renewed wave of NHS strikes in England that health service leaders warned were unsustainable and could put patient safety at risk.
With the prime minister and his health secretary, Steve Barclay, seemingly offering no fresh concessions for nurses or junior doctors, they risk the possibility of combined strike action, a scenario one NHS leader said would put the health service “into uncharted territory”.
Continue reading...